What is the origin of Lantern Festival?

There are three main theories about the origin of the Lantern Festival. One is to commemorate the Pinglu Rebellion for Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty; The second is to commemorate the legend of Dong Fangshuo and Yuanxiao girl; Third, Shang Yuan, one of the three elements of Taoist sacrifice in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Brief introduction of lantern festival

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, just after the Spring Festival, the traditional festival Lantern Festival in China was ushered in.

Lantern Festival, also known as Xiaoyuanyue, Lantern Festival or Lantern Festival, is the first important festival after the Spring Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year. Qiantang Qu You's Double-headed Peony Lantern: "There are five night lights in Mingzhou every year. Women in the whole city have to see it. "

The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called night "night", so they called the fifteenth day of the first month "Lantern Festival". The fifteenth day of the first month is the night of the first full moon in a year, and it is also the night of spring return, so people celebrate it and celebrate the continuation of the Spring Festival. Lantern Festival is also called "Shangyuan Festival" or "Lantern Festival".

. The custom of Lantern Festival includes watching lanterns, wrapping jiaozi, and playing drums in the New Year to welcome Ce Shen and solve riddles on the lanterns. The custom of eating Yuanxiao began in the Song Dynasty. Yuanxiao is a kind of jiaozi, which is a solid or stuffed jiaozi made of glutinous rice flour. You can eat soup, stir-fry it or steam it.

The fifteenth day of the first month is called Shangyuan Festival, also called Lantern Festival, which has a long history. The content of Shangyuan Festival is very rich. In the evening, people can "play with lanterns", that is, put on lanterns, watch lanterns, play with lanterns and set off fireworks. Yuanxiao, the festive food of Shangyuan Festival, is sweet and delicious, and is deeply favored by everyone.

The origin of festivals

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the traditional "Shangyuan Festival" in China, also called "Lantern Festival" and "Lantern Festival". As early as more than 2,000 years ago, Emperor Wendi of the Han Dynasty (180- 140 BC) ascended the throne after putting down the "rebellion of the emperors", and the day of putting down the rebellion was the fifteenth day of the first month. So every night after that, Emperor Wendi would go out to play in the palace and "have fun with the people". The first month is January, and "night" is also called "night" in the old saying, so the Chinese Emperor designated the fifteenth day of the first month as "Lantern Festival". However, when

At that time, there was no custom of turning on the lights and watching them. In the 10th year of Han Yongping (AD 67), Cai obtained Buddhism from India. In order to promote Buddhism, Ming Di ordered the Lantern Festival to be lit to show his respect for Buddhism. This is the origin of the Lantern Festival. However, there is still a difference between Shangyuan in the Han Dynasty and the Lantern Festival in later generations, and it did not gradually evolve into today's Lantern Festival until after the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, Taoism was regarded as the state religion. In order to celebrate the birth of Taoism "Shangyuan Blessed the Heavenly King Wei Zi Da Di", Shangyuan Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month became a folk festival with Buddhist and Taoist characteristics. Its activities have also formed fixed forms such as lighting lamps, setting off fireworks and eating Yuanxiao.

Lantern Festival history

Lantern Festival, also known as Lantern Festival, is also one of Valentine's Days in China. The custom of burning lanterns in the Lantern Festival began in the Han Dynasty, and in the Tang Dynasty, the activities of enjoying lanterns became more prosperous. Lights are hung everywhere in the palace and streets, and tall lantern wheels, lantern houses and lantern trees have been built. Lu (about 637 ~ 689, the word Rose, Fanyang), a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, once described the grand occasion of burning lanterns in the Lantern Festival in Fifteen Nights.

In the Song Dynasty, more attention was paid to the Lantern Festival, and lantern viewing activities became more lively. The lantern viewing activity lasted for five days, and the styles of lanterns were more abundant. In the Ming Dynasty, the Lantern Festival will last 10 days, which is the longest Lantern Festival in China. Although there were only three days to enjoy the lanterns in the Qing Dynasty, the scale of the lantern viewing activities was unprecedented. Besides burning lanterns, fireworks are also set off for entertainment.

"Lantern riddle", also known as "playing riddles", is an activity added after the Lantern Festival, which appeared in the Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin 'an, the capital, made riddles every Lantern Festival, and there were many people in solve riddles on the lanterns. At the beginning, it was a busybody who wrote riddles on paper and posted them on colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because riddles are enlightening and interesting, they are welcomed by all walks of life in the process of communication.

Folk custom of eating Yuanxiao on Lantern Festival. Yuanxiao is made of glutinous rice, which can be solid or stuffed. Filled with bean paste, sugar, hawthorn, various fruit materials and so on. You can cook, fry, steam and fry when you eat. At first, people called this kind of food "Floating Zi Yuan", and later they called it "Tangtuan" or "Tangyuan". These names are similar in pronunciation, meaning reunion, symbolizing family reunion, harmony and happiness. People also miss their departed relatives and place their best wishes on their future lives.

In some places, the Lantern Festival also has the custom of "walking away from all diseases", which is also called "roasting all diseases" and "dispersing all diseases". Most of the participants are women. They walk together or against the wall, or across the bridge in the suburbs, in order to drive away diseases and eliminate disasters.

With the passage of time, there are more and more activities in the Lantern Festival, and many local festivals have added traditional folk performances such as playing dragon lanterns, playing lions, walking on stilts, rowing dry boats, dancing yangko and playing Taiping drums. This traditional festival, which has been passed down for more than two thousand years, is not only popular on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, but also celebrated every year in areas where overseas Chinese live in concentrated communities.

The origin of Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China, which existed in the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago.

It is said that it was set up to commemorate Pinglu when Emperor Wendi was in power. After the death of Emperor Liu Ying of the Han Dynasty, Lv Hou usurped power, and the Lushi family dominated the state affairs. After Lv Hou's death, Zhou Bo, Chen Ping and others eliminated the influence of Lv Hou and established Liu Heng as the emperor of China. Because the day to quell Zhu Lu is the fifteenth day of the first month, after that, every year on the fifteenth night of the first month, Emperor Wen of Han will go out of the palace to celebrate with the people incognito and set the fifteenth day of the first month as the Lantern Festival.

During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the sacrificial activities of "Taiyi God" were scheduled for the 15th day of the first month. Taiyi: the God who rules the universe. When Sima Qian created the taichu calendar Law, he had already identified the Lantern Festival as a major festival.

The custom of burning lanterns in the Lantern Festival originated from the "ternary theory" of Taoism. The fifteenth day of the first month is Shangyuan Festival, the fifteenth day of July is Zhongyuan Festival, and the fifteenth day of October is Xiayuan Festival. The three officials in charge of the upper, middle and lower elements are heaven, earth and man, respectively. Heaven officials are happy, and lanterns are lit on the Lantern Festival.

Another way of saying it is that the Lantern Festival began in the East with Emperor Han Ming. Ming Di advocates Buddhism. He heard that on the fifteenth day of the first month, monks observed Buddhist relics and lit lamps to worship Buddha. He ordered that lights should be lit in palaces and temples to worship Buddha that night, so that all the gentry and ordinary people could hang lights. Later, this Buddhist ceremonial festival gradually formed a grand folk festival. This festival has experienced the development process from the court to the people, and from the Central Plains to the whole country.

The festivals and customs of Lantern Festival have been extended and expanded with the development of history. As far as the length of festivals is concerned, there is only one day in Han Dynasty, three days in Tang Dynasty and five days in Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, lights were lit from the eighth day of August until the seventeenth night of the first month, a total of ten days. Connected with the Spring Festival, it is a city during the day, full of excitement, and brightly lit at night, which is spectacular. Especially the exquisite and colorful lights make it the climax of entertainment activities during the Spring Festival. In the Qing Dynasty, there were more "hundred plays" such as dragon dance, lion dance, ferry, stilt walking and yangko dancing, but the festival period was shortened to four.